Lou Barletta deserves key role in immigration debate

U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-11th District) opposes President Obama's recent executive action to relax U.S. immigration laws and allow up to 5 million illegal immigrants to remain in this country.

U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-11th District) opposes President Obama's recent executive action to relax U.S. immigration laws and allow up to 5 million illegal immigrants to remain in this country. (MICHAEL KUBEL, THE MORNING CALL)

A tour of the No. 9 Coal Mine & Museum in Lansford brings forth the horror of the days before labor laws. A mule was literally worth more than a miner. When management tossed aside a dead or crippled miner, there stood an endless line of immigrants to replace him for free.

Black lung, poisonous air, headlamp battery acid leaks, coal car crashes, no sunshine. Seven-year-old boys were kicked to death by the mules they walked through miles of narrow, sloping, dripping tunnels in inches-deep muck.

The miners' best friends were the lowly rats, which stampeded at the slightest sign a cave-in was coming.

This past week, we didn't need rats to tell us the House and Senate Republican leadership was kicking out the timbers over American working families. It actually fought for and succeeded in keeping the funding for Obama's illegal alien amnesty invasion.

House Speaker John Boehner promises Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta (R-11th District) a seat and voice at the immigration table when Republicans have control of both chambers in January. Another shot at stopping amnesty?

Barletta is rock solid on immigration control. He has defied the corrosive Beltway establishment much like Sen. Ted Cruz. Let it be an encouragement to our other Pennsylvania GOP members: Stand with Lou.